Matthew Keefe - Java and Flex Integration Bible

Java and Flex Integration Bible

Matthew Keefe and Charles A. Christiansen Jr.

Java and Flex Integration Bible

Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com

Copyright 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-40074-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

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In memory of my best friend, Andrew Lenihan.

To Eileen, for all your love and support; and to my mom, who always wanted to see my name in print.

About the Authors

Charles A. Christiansen Jr. is a full-time Java application developer. Over the past 11 years, he has worked on teams that have developed a wide variety of e-learning and classroom management applications. Charles has written applications by using the gamut of Java application technologies, from the heavy client Java application using RMI over dialup connections to fast, lightweight Web applications using Spring and Hibernate. He holds a Master of Science degree in Internet Engineering from the Graduate Center of Marlboro College.

Charles lives in the metro Boston area with his wife Eileen and their irascible cat Tigger. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, especially barbecue, and photography.

Matthew Keefe is a new-media designer, developer, author, and trainer with a strong background in application development for the Web and offline platforms. Originally a full-time graphic artist, he found that much of the programming associated with his design work was being outsourced. Matthew quickly learned programming for the Web and uncovered a valuable but little-known skill set in this industry: the ability to build a site and to also powerfully design it.

Matthew recently authored the Flash and PHP Bible, has contributed to various Flex and Flash magazines, and runs http://scriptplayground.com for other programmers to learn from. You can find more information on his personal site at http://mkeefe.com .

Matthew has worked with several companies and studios, including Inverted Creative, Delphi, PhotoshopCAFE, Kineticz Interactive, Organi Studios, Bent 360, and ORCA Media, Inc. He lives in Carver, Massachusetts.

Credits

Acquisitions Editor

Courtney Allen

Project Editor

Christopher Stolle

Technical Editors

Darron Schall
Gerry Power

Copy Editor

Marylouise Wiack

Editorial Manager

Robyn Siesky

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Project Coordinator

Lynsey Stanford

Graphics and Production Specialists

Ana Carrillo
Jennifer Mayberry
Sarah Philippart

Quality Control Technicians

Laura Albert
Amanda Graham

Proofreading

Kathy Simpson

Indexing

Sharon Shock

Charles A. Christiansen Jr.: I would like to thank Matthew Keefe for asking me to do this book with him, my lovely wife Eileen for encouraging me through this whole process, Courtney Allen and Christopher Stolle for being so great to work with, Kevin Polk for bringing me into the world of Java development so many years ago, and my parents for teaching me the value of hard work and encouraging me to fully pursue my interests.

Matthew Keefe: I would like to thank all the folks at Wiley for making this book a reality. A special thanks to acquisitions editor Courtney Allen and project editor Christopher Stolle. I would also like to thank my friends and family Philip, Daz, Colin, Teisha, John, Brooke, Frank, and my mom for their support. And lastly, I would like to thank my dad for getting me started in technology when I was younger and making it possible to do what I love.

For years, Java has been used to develop Web applications that allow users to access server-side data through user interfaces presented in a Web browser. Generally, the user interfaces for these applications have been presented to the user as HTML by using technologies such as Java Server Pages (JSP) to insert server-side data into the user interface to create dynamic, data-driven applications.